Decisions of the PCC - September 2018

On this page, any decisions made by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland will be published. The table below outlines each decision supported by the Decision Form used by the Commissioner to justify the decision.

Note: Where a link to the decision document is unavailable. this will be updated as soon as possible.

Easterside Partnership was set up in 1998 with the aim of promoting a safe community to live in and bringing residents together.

The Partnership have requested funding from the PCC to contribute to a planned day trip to Flamingo Land for disadvantaged families from the area over the school summer holidays. This supports the PCC's commitment to investing in local community groups to help them build safer neighbourhoods. The funding requested covers the coach hire from Easterside to Flamingo Land return and also a contribution towards ticket purchase for 20 adults and 38 children.

This initiative supports the PCC's objective of Securing the Future of Our Communities.

The decision is about developing collaborative legal services across the six corporations sole:

Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland

Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham

Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire

Chief Constable of Cleveland

Chief Constable of Durham

Chief Constable of North Yorkshire

Such a service would therefore absorb and replace current legal services functions within police forces, ensure that capacity is available to meet the legal services needs of the Chief Constables (i.e. the Police Forces) as well as Police and Crime Commissioners and their offices, and reduce costs to the public purse by making specialist skills available across several forces.

The decision in respect of this service does not take into account future requirements that may arise as a result of one or more of the Police and Crime Commissioners assuming responsibility for the governance of Fire and Rescue Services. Implications for the collaborated service will be considered when necessary.

Sopra Steria provides Cleveland Police with a range of services including HR, Business Support, Finance, Estates, Learning and Development, Control Room and ICT. Staff in those services are employed by Sopra Steria under the terms of an outsourced contract, which commenced in 2010 and has a contract end date of 2020. Under the terms of the contract, the arrangement can be extended. If that is to happen, it must be decided upon by a date in 2018.

The Police & Crime Commissioner is the contracting body and it is therefore a matter for the PCC, in consultation with the Force, to determine whether to extend the contract at this stage.

The PCC has received a full and detailed proposal from Cleveland Police setting out the options that that Force consider appropriate for future service provision in respect of these functions. Based upon a full and detailed consideration of that proposal, the PCC has made the decision not to extend this contract past its planned end point in 2020.

The remaining contract time period will be known as ‘due diligence’. This means we can assess how to collaborate, operate and perform more effectively in the future and plan our operational delivery when the contract comes to an end in 2020.

Significantly, this period of due diligence will examine how the services delivered by Sopra Steria can be returned and delivered ‘in-house’ by Cleveland Police. The Force’s proposals are for the due diligence and business change process to be undertaken as a programme of work to be known as ‘Project Fusion’. It is anticipated that the future service provision model will realise savings of c£8 million over the five year period 2020-2025.

The PCC is satisfied that the strategic partnership with Sopra Steria has succeeded in saving in the region of £70million over its contractual lifespan – and wishes to acknowledge the positive partnership with Sopra Steria, which reflected the Government’s focus at its inception in 2010, introducing private sector service provision into public services. However, as an organisation Cleveland Police has evolved significantly since the decision was made to outsource services. Today, public policy and the PCC’s Police & Crime Plan favour collaboration between Blue Light services wherever possible and the PCC agrees with the Chief Constable that there must be innovative solutions to make further savings and deliver the best possible policing service to the people of Cleveland.

The Force’s Proposal documentation – entitled ‘Make or Buy’ – and the business case in respect of ‘Project Fusion’ form the background to this decision but are not being published at this time, on the basis that they contain information which is commercially sensitive (and therefore confidential) and which is subject to consultation in due course with employee representation. They are attached to Part B of this Decision Record and will be published once those two conditions are considered by the Chief Constable to have been discharged.

A full Communications Plan has been approved in conjunction with this Decision Record Form which will ensure that all stakeholders are kept fully informed as this decision is carried into effect and Project Fusion gets underway.

Police and Crime Commissioners are required to compile and maintain lists of independent people to sit on police misconduct panels. This is in line with government policy and the regulations, to the effect that there should be an independent person on each panel which hears police misconduct cases.

In the past the OPCC has drawn on the expertise of members of the Audit Committee to, in addition to their role on the audit committee, act as Independent Members of Police Misconduct Panels.

The main role of independent members will be to provide an impartial voice on misconduct panels and to assist panels in coming to fair and evidence-based judgements about a police officer's conduct and deciding on an appropriate sanction.

All the members of the Audit Committee have confirmed that they will act in the capacity of Independent Members of Police Misconduct Panels.

RoadPeace North East aims to support road crash victims, and their family, friends and communities, through a combination of peer to peer support, support groups, provision of information and guidance and in the organisation of remembrance events.

Funding has been requested from the PCC for a campaign called "Light Up for Liam". Liam Hibbins was tragically killed on the Coast Road in Redcar in October 2017. His death appears contributed to by a lack of lighting on the road. RoadPeace are purchasing 12,000 adult glow wrist bands and 4,000 youth glow wrist bands with the aim that the wristbands will act as a warning to drivers as to pedestrian presence and will therefore hopefully reduce pedestrian road traffic collisions on this road.

This project will seek to work with the Redcar Beacons Street Angels and those involved in the night time economy to distribute the adult bands to revellers making their way home. Many young people also use the Coast Road to make their way to and from school, the youth bands will be promoted and distributed in local schools.

This initiative supports the PCC's objective of Working Together to Make Cleveland Safer.

Nunthorpe and Marton Knitters are a community group based in Middlesbrough providing access to all. The group have recently been making 'Trauma Toys' which are soft teddies that are handed out to children who come into contact with Cleveland Police, Victim Care and Advice Service and Teesside Sexual Assault Referral Centre (https://www.cleveland.pcc.police.uk/News-and-Events/News-Archive/2018/Appeal-for-knitters-to-create-soft-toys-for-children-affected-by-crime.aspx)

The group have requested funding for materials to run a weekly pilot session for asylum seekers and refugees at St Andrews Church in Eston. The knitting group have recently met with a local group of refugees and asylum seekers who are keen to join the knitting group which promotes community cohesion. The items purchased will include sewing and knitting materials.

This project supports the PCC's objective of Securing the Future of Our Communities and reflects the PCC's personal commitment to work with local communities.

Hardwick Residents Association meet regularly with the local community to share information, discuss issues within the estate and to organise community events with the aim of promoting a safe community to live in and bring residents together.

The Association have requested funding from the PCC to contribute to a planned day trip to Whitby for disadvantaged families from the area over the school summer holidays. This supports the PCC's commitment to investing in local community groups to help them build safer neighbourhoods. The funding provided will cover the coach cost from Hardwick to Whitby return, refreshments and lunch for 33 people.

This initiative supports the PCC's objective of Securing the Future of Our Communities.

Cleveland Police currently purchases its gas and electricity supplies through a CPB (Central Purchasing Body) called NEPO.

NEPO manages a flexible framework agreement for gas and electricity supplies on behalf of approximately 26 local authorities within the North East region, the overall annual value of the electricity contract across the region is approximately £55,000,000.

The current electricity supply contract is due for renewal on the 31st March 2019. Following a NEPO regional procurement exercise, a contract recommendation has been put forward for the supply of electricity to all participating local authorities from 1st April 2019. The successful contractor is a new supplier and has assured a seamless transition of contracts. The contract term will be 4 years with the option to extend for a further 2 years.

It is widely recognised that one of the most cost effective ways for public sector organisations to buy energy is to use recommended frameworks through a central purchasing body (CPB) that have aggregated volumes, can offer flexible purchasing and enable best practice risk management.

The renewal of the Electricity supply contract was undertaken following the NEPO category management process and protocols, a project team was established with full support from the North East region with a cross section of disciplines and member Authorities being represented.

A supplier engagement programme was embarked upon to ensure a competitive number of bids were received, to make certain the structure of the ITT encouraged suppliers to bid and that the project team fully understood the market and the potential of what this procurement could deliver.

A full EU compliant tender process was then undertaken with five suppliers submitting final tender submissions.

The project evaluation team agreed the format and based the tender package on the following criteria: Buying & risk management, Cost, Customer requirement, Implementation plan, Exit strategy, Sustainability and energy efficiency and innovation.

The submissions were evaluated on the following criteria:

Quality 55%

Cost 25%

Quality Demand Side Services 10%

System Demonstration 5%

Social Value 5%.

On assessment of the returned tender submissions it was clear that Bidder B provided the most detailed tender response which provided the evaluation team with assurance that the contractor was clearly competent to deliver the specification of requirements.

Bidder Total Score

Bidder A 57.23%

Bidder B 89.36%

Bidder C 81.93%

Bidder D 61.32%

Bidder E 86.72%.

It is therefore recommended that due to the significant scoring difference between Bidder B and the remaining bidders that the contract be awarded direct to Bidder B.